See, I'm back for the second post since my return, and maybe today I'm going to raise some controversy.
Did you have a chance to read the last post and it's link to "Tequila Shots for Cirrhosis Research"?
Before I become controversial, I want to write a disclaimer...
- I appreciate all the private funds that have gone to curing paralysis.
- I appreciate all the private efforts individuals have made to cycle, and wheel, and run, and walk to raise money to cure paralysis.
- I thank you because for now, raising private funds is one way that we can work to cure paralysis.
But, is private charity the best way to fund medical research?
I often link to "Tequila Shots for Cirrhosis Research". Simply put, it's the story of Rick Hansen and his goal to wheel across the world to raise money for SCI research. This was just after Terry Fox and from a young age is what made me conscious of the idea of doing something extraordinary to raise funds from private individuals for medical research.
It feels that I have announced my return so many times that people might actually doubt whether I'm really back for good. Well, I guess work will be the only way to prove that, not only to others, but to myself too.
We all know that paralysis prevents movement, but I think many people in the able bodied community don't know what other things paralysis does. For one, it kills, both literally and figuratively. It kills body as well as soul with it a crushing of hope.
I know; I was a victim of the "other stuff paralysis does", namely bone crunching pain. My life moved from fighting for a cure for paralysis to trying to defend my self full time from the pain it brought. I like to consider myself and strong person and I hate to feel like a victim, but I must bow to it; paralysis made me a victim of its terrifying secondary conditions and blacked out 6 years of my life.
Not to go into great detail on this first post back, I think I have the pain part under control enough to go back to the cure part, but as a hint, it wasn't mind over matter or positive thinking, it was medical technology (and of course your thoughts and prayers gave me the impetus to keep searching for an exit out of hell).
